


and the ground that lies beneath us

by coricomile



Category: Twilight Series - All Media Types
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-22
Updated: 2015-06-22
Packaged: 2018-04-05 13:57:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4182453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coricomile/pseuds/coricomile
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The boy is going to become an enemy someday, and Edward knows it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	and the ground that lies beneath us

Edward can smell the boy in the air, wet and earthen and young. There's a war inside of him, the old parts that belong to a greater being than him taking over the body he's always known. Mutt. Dog blood. Changing so quickly under his skin that it makes him smell like he's burning.

If Edward had to assume, he'd say the boy is fourteen, thirteen maybe. His mind is a muddle of girls and motorcycles and the smell of lakes, clashing around for his attention like it's a prize. He's getting bigger by the second, the cracking of his bones changing and his muscles tearing like a campfire crackling in Edward's ears. He feels sympathy pain in his knees and elbows, growing pains he hasn't had for decades.

The boy is going to become an enemy someday, and Edward knows it. It doesn't stop him from picking up the pace to trot alongside him under the dreary Forks sky, the forest thick around them.

"You shouldn't play in the woods by yourself," Edward says. He feels the boy prickle before he hears him think _stranger, threat, jerk_. It's angry in the way all teenagers are. Edward tries to remember that ever present boil under his skin but falls short.

"You shouldn't either." The boy- Jacob, another voice inside his head is calling him, distant and near silent. Edward wonders if Jacob hears the warning at all.

"Then I guess we'll have to walk together." Edward motions forward, and Jacob glowers at him for a long moment before going.

The silence is painful. Edward watches Jacob watch the ground, feels the shake of his bones as they grow at triple speed. Jacob is... alive. Edward can feel the dead blood in his own veins aching to feel that way again. When Edward closes his eyes, he can almost feel a heartbeat. It's overpowering.

Jacob's mind is a rush of emotions, fleeting words and images and voices that are just too soft for him to hear. Pack. Dogs. Vermin. They can feel that Edward's near. They're trying to tell Jacob to stay away.

"Why are you out here?" Edward asks. Jacob shrugs. His shoulders are narrow, thin, but Edward can already see the shape they'll be in a year, a few months if he keeps growing at this accelerated pace.

"It's nice to be somewhere you don't have to follow orders." Jacob isn't the kind of kid to be left alone. Jacob isn't the kind of kid to be stationary.

Edward hears a gurgle of thought, louder than the rest. _Run away_ , it says. _Get out!_ Alpha, already busting in to take control. Jacob closes his eyes. He can hear it.

Edward doesn't blink when he finds himself on his back in the grass, all of Jacob's weight over him. The boy is burning up, a furnace against Edward's cold. It hurts. Jacob kisses him, sharp and inexperienced, and Edward lets him.

From here, he can feel the heartbeat straight in the center of his chest. From here, can feel the deadness of his veins lifting away. In this moment, he is no longer a dead thing.

Jacob scrambles up, hair falling over his face, mouth still slick. He swallows and he's thinking _what have I done? What have I done?_ He hightails through the forest, too fast to be human anymore, but Edward can still smell him on the air.

His chest feels branded where Jacob had laid. He lays on the grass until all the heat has faded away. He's still not human, but he feels a little closer to it now.


End file.
